“Ou—”
While tying a ribbon onto the tree, Guru puckered her lips into an O as she looked toward the balcony.
Beyond the big balcony blinds, Chloe and On Ijo were kissing again and again.
“Stop watching.”
Stringing the fairy lights, Jurim pulled Guru into his arms.
Even so, Guru twisted her head just enough to keep looking at the two.
“Wuv!”
“Seems so.”
“Hooo!”
Guru clasped her hands together in front of her chest, and both of her cheeks flushed pink.
Bang!
[Quest Complete!]
Right then, a cat paw stamp thumped down as the quest was completed.
Wuv! It connected!
Leaves rustled with a fresh sway.
When she opened the status window, the attachment tree that had been about a teenager had somehow already become an adult tree.
Then!
At last, a title would unlock!
Guru stared at the status window full of anticipation.
Thump-thump!
It happened in that instant.
“Pip!”
Mephisto let out a tiny chirp, slipped out of inventory, and fluttered up with a whirr.
“Mephi!”
“Piiit!”
Still a bit woozy, Mephisto wobbled through the air and then settled into Guru’s arms.
“Now you woke up all the way?”
“Pip-pip!”
Nodding, Mephisto nuzzled her cheek.
It was time to go back now.
Jurim couldn’t take his eyes off the child welcoming Mephisto, and he hesitated for a moment.
If he told her, how badly would she be hurt?
If he didn’t say it? When she learned later, how much would she resent him?
“Guru.”
Even so, they had to get ready to go back.
Swallowing °• N o v e l i g h t •° a distant fear, Jurim drew in her small hand and held it.
“Let’s go now.”
Pretending not to know—eyes closed like that.
“Already?”
“Yeah.”
His heart felt impatient.
If they didn’t hurry back, it felt like something irreversible would happen.
“Not even say bye to Big Sis an’ Samchun?”
“Even if you do, you’ll forget it anyway. It’s better to leave quietly.”
Jurim was resolute.
He was just about to grab Mephisto by the neck and threaten him to hurry and take them back when—
Guru suddenly blinked.
She stood there as if entranced, staring straight ahead.
Puzzled, Jurim gently held her shoulders.
“What’s wrong?”
“Daddychann, ish it.”
“Yeah.”
“Ish it...”
For some reason, a deep sorrow seeped into the child’s voice.
Guru looked up at Jurim.
Their eyes met without warning, and Jurim drew in a breath. The child’s eyes were trembling.
'Why?'
“Daddychann, how upset would you be if dere was no Gwuu?”
At the completely unexpected question, pain twisted across Jurim’s eyes.
He could tell, instinctively, that the child had sensed something.
Guru lowered her head again and stared quietly ahead.
There, still unread, floated the quest completion window.
[Caregiver Quest: Connect Mom and Dad with Love]
[Complete!]
Why had Chloe and On Ijo been able to complete [Caregiver Registration] without accumulating attachment points?
It must have been the obvious thing.
'Because they were Guru’s mom and dad.'
Guru looked at Chloe and On Ijo holding hands.
Jurim followed the child’s gaze.
It was the backs of a family who would be even happier if they were together with their child.
And yet, even knowing that—
“If there were no you... a lot, way too much. It would feel like my heart was gone. It would hurt so much it’d be better to turn to dust and disappear.”
“...So dat’s how it is.”
For a moment, Jurim was afraid—afraid of what might be turning in that small head.
Could she be thinking of staying in the past?
Even though, before long, she might become a lost child of the past and be erased from the world?
“Why are you asking that all of a sudden?”
He had to be careful not to let his voice shake. Since when had it become this hard to feign composure?
But he could only crumble a moment later.
“Is Big Sis and Samchun... Gwuu’s real mom and dad?”
His throat clenched; he couldn’t breathe.
Tears welled in the child’s big eyes.
As he flustered, reaching to wipe them with his sleeve—
“When we go back... in the world where Gwuu lives... dere’s no mama, no daddy?”
Guru knew it by instinct.
The person who sent her to the orphanage.
The person who gave her the name “Han Guru.”
That person was Chloe Han—Mama.
From the G-folder, the one said to have died after sending Guru to the orphanage.
Tuk, tuduk—
Tears fell and fell without stopping as Guru lifted her head.
Endlessly, Jurim wiped them away.
'If only I could take all your sorrow onto myself.'
“I’m sorry. For not telling you...”
Nod, nod. For some reason, that small head nodded like she understood.
“But I... can’t. I can’t be without you.”
The words burst out, desperate.
The child didn’t answer.
Jurim fixed her face toward him so she couldn’t see her birth parents’ backs.
“You have to go back. Otherwise you might disappear.”
When the silent child didn’t respond, Jurim gently bumped his forehead to hers. He closed his eyes.
“If that happens, you won’t be happy. No one...”
“...No one?”
“Yeah, no one.”
Jurim opened his eyes.
Tears kept pattering down from those pale coral-colored eyes.
“The two of them will love each other. And they’ll bear the fruit of that love. That’s you.”
Guru slowly blinked as she savored the word love.
Jurim stroked the corners of her reddened eyes again.
“And that fruit will come to find me. And we’ll keep getting happier. That’s the future waiting for the us who go back.”
“Your hyung said it, didn’t he? If he didn’t go to the Tower, no one could be happy.”
Nod, nod.
“It’s like that. If you don’t go back, no one can be happy.”
Remembering On Ijo’s face as he had declared that no one would be happy otherwise, Guru clutched Jurim’s sleeve.
If she didn’t go back, at least the dad in front of her would be unhappy. So very much.
Like the day he sent his brother up to the 100th floor alone—so much.
She didn’t want to leave him like that. She loved Dad this much. She couldn’t make him unhappy.
Guru lowered her head and stifled her sobs. Her shoulders quivered.
Watching the two in silence, Mephisto flared his wings wide and hugged Guru tight.
[You have to go, Guru.]
A message—clearly sent by Mephisto—popped up in front of her eyes.
With his small body, he nuzzled his head into Guru’s cheek.
[The past is only the past. No matter what you do, you can’t live in the past.]
Held by both Mephisto and Jurim, Guru looked at her parents’ backs.
“I’ll love you even more. So let’s go back together. Please.”
She blinked again, slowly, and tears spilled from the corners of her eyes.
“If you want to say a last goodbye...”
The child gave a small shake of her head.
“...I just wanna go.”
Because if they stayed any longer, parting would only get harder.
Relieved, Jurim pressed his lips together.
Eyes squeezed shut, Guru silently wrapped her arms around Jurim’s neck.
Light burst out from Mephisto’s body.
The light wrapped around Guru and Jurim, spreading warmly as if to comfort their choice.
Back in the living room, Chloe stood stupefied before the empty tree.
On Ijo, who came in after her, asked,
“What’s wrong?”
“What were we doing?”
He smiled faintly.
“Weren’t we making a tree?”
“Two of them?”
“Oh, right. Not one guru but two gurus.”
“Guru...”
Chloe murmured. Something felt forgotten, and her mind turned hazy and white.
But the thought faded quickly.
She placed a hand on her belly and looked toward where the bug was hidden.
Guru slowly opened her eyes at the motion rocking her.
“myu!”
“Kkyu!”
It was Veilach and Lukshifer.
'Where is...'
As the shattered, gold-tinged afterimage of the past vanished, the jet engine’s roar came from all around.
She tried to sit up, but a firm chest was holding her in its arms.
Avoiding the worried looks, Guru buried her face against that chest.
Sniffle, sniffle. The sound of crying continued.
Jurim patted that tiny body, checked his wristwatch, confirmed only a few minutes had passed, and let out a sigh.
'So it was a moment.'
Frowning slightly, he pressed kiss after kiss onto Guru’s head where her face was tucked into his chest.
Jurim held her in his arms, precious and close, until she calmed down.
Guru sniffled, dabbing the little tears that still leaked onto Jurim’s chest, and drew in a breath.
A strange emptiness swept over her.
Guru clenched her empty little hand tight, as if to grasp the last glimpse she’d had of her mom and dad’s backs.
Guru’s birth parents loved each other.
They said she was the fruit of that love.
Then... did Mom and Dad love Guru?
The question came to her belatedly.
Why had Mom sent Guru to the orphanage?
Just then, she heard the leaves rattle-rustle as the wind swept through them.
'The title...'
She still hadn’t opened the title. Guru pulled up the status window.
[A message left in the title opens.]
At first, you were only a piece of my sense of responsibility.
When did I start loving you?
When you started kicking my belly?
When I started secretly carrying your photo pressed to me even while cinching my waist?
Pinpointing the start of love is always a fuzzy thing.
Just like I don’t know when I started loving your dad.
After On Jurim cleared the 99th floor and came back alone, I decided to run.
I think I started sensing my death around then.
Because I’d begun to realize the Company was experimenting on me.
I tried to hide it, but they must have guessed I had a child.
Sneaking into the lab and opening every glass wall that caged the kids—god, that was exhilarating. Killer good.
It was the most thrilling thing of my life, and I’ll stand by that.
I entrusted the kids to someone I could trust and siphoned off the research data.
It’s hard for an ordinary pregnant woman to avoid a conglomerate’s eyes.
Even so, feeling you inside me made it feel like I was enjoying all the happiness in the world.
When I gave birth to you in an old, abandoned warehouse in the mountains, and in the months we shared after—do you know how filled those days were with joy?
But soon I had to run again, so I wrote your name and sent you to an orphanage.
The name someone once told me—Han Guru, so you wouldn’t be lonely.
The experimental data is going to disappear with me.
Now the world has been spared destruction, and I hope the cruel experiments on kids like you won’t continue.
I’m sorry, but I’ll become a part of you and watch over you.
Because this is the only way I know how to love.
Don’t fixate only on achievement.
Learn relationships and love.
Live to the fullest in the world your dad protected.
I love you.
I love you so much.
Mom loves Guru too much.
[(Unknown Title) lock is released.]
[Title: ■■■ ■■■ ■■ ■■ ■■■]
The little black blocks that hid the title began to fall away.
[Title: Mom Loves Guru Too Much]
A lump surged up to her throat.
Mom had loved Guru too much.
And even now, she was still with her—still loving her.

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